June 18th- Istanbul, Turkey

Another beautiful day in Istanbul! We got up had breakfast and went to Topkapi Palace and Harem. It was a pretty big castle with an amazing view of the Bosphorus. Again poor so we didn't get the Audio Tour. We read here and there and picked up what we could but to be honest it was crowded. The jewels were cool- 80 carat diamond was a first. When we left there we went on a 2 hour boat tour of the bosphorus to see the European side as well as the Asian side of Istanbul. Did you know that Istanbul is the only city in the world that is on two continents? Pretty cool. It was beautiful to see the coast line with the stacked houses and the trees. They are like perfect. I can't describe them but they are a mix of cyprus and pine looks wise. 

We headed back after this to rest because at this point in the trip we are honestly exhausted. Katelyn and I went to tea time again. We went to an earlier dinner on the rooftop terrace of a restaurant that overlooks the Blue Mosque and the Bosphorus in the background. Gorgeous spot to eat delicious Turkish food. I got Turkish Baklava here. Not as good at Greek Baklava. It is made with pistachios which makes for an interesting flavor. I think what made it weird was the ice cream served with it. Which may have been mado. More on Mado soon. We walked down the street a ways and found some ice cream. It is like a street performance here. Mado is like made from goats milk and is thickened with the crushed up root of lychee. They play tricks with the cones and try to feed you the ice cream and are just silly. Let's pause for a second. He played some tricks with me with just a cone first and then when he prepared my actual ice cream he used a different cone. BUT he put back the cone I had been touching. Soooooo of course my thought process as I am eating MY SECOND dessert of the day is whether I think others' hands have touched my cone and how dirty they were. Immune system building at its finest....

I forgot to tell you that Katelyn had another dream last night. The kind where she wakes me up. This has happened about 7 times so far. She never wakes anyone else up. Just me. Anyway normally they are urgent- she thinks someone is in our night train car or that we are late for something, etc. This time though it was jibberish. "Jane... JANE." "Yes, Katelyn?" "I need to chsfhagfhs the chairs." " You what?" "I need to chatch the cherries" "You need to get the cherries?" "Yes, I need to catch the cherries if they are up here (grabbing in the air over her haid). If not it is fine." "Okay...."  All I can say about this discourse is that apparently introducing her to cherries was a life changing moment. 

A few things that have been on my mind:

PEPSI is sick. I have never had anything so gross. I mean I am obviously a coke fan but still I tried to give Pepsi a chance. It was a mistake. A huge mistake really. I had to throw it out after four sips. At one point I forgot I hated it so much and had resigned to stop drinking it until I found a trashcan. I actually spit my sip back down the straw. I couldn't even stomach it. 

Another thing is that picking a restaurant is a nightmare most times. It is work to please everyone. Also if I have to eat pasta or pizza again I will cry. It is everywhere here. I am not kidding. If we added all the pizza places in Birmingham together and multiplied by 3 there would be less than there are in each city here whether the population is 1,000 or 30,000.